Ginny appeared in her flat with a loud crack, and immediately fell to her knees, hyperventilating, tears streaming down her face. "Fuck," she said pitifully. "Fucking, fuck." She was at least relieved that she'd managed to hold off until she'd left Remus's. For a moment, she stared at her dangling shirt strap, transfixed as the morning replayed in her head. Letting her hair fall into her face, she choked on a sob as the scent of Harry filled her nostrils. She stood on wobbly legs and kicked the side of her chair angrily, ignoring the pain shooting into her bare toes. She deposited her things in the chair and peeled off her clothes, leaving them in a trail to the shower. She stood under cold water, numb and unblinking, silently chastising herself for making such a big deal of this.

Her mind wanted to work its way through the logic of the morning. But she shook her head, her mind was not allowed to do that. Harry Potter was back, and she got carried away in a completely unwelcome way. Well, not completely unwelcome, but unwelcome in the ways that could break her. She dried herself and dressed in a pair of denims and one of Ron's threadbare, child hood shirts. It was once dark blue, and the cotton was so well worn it bordered on sheer in the elbows and shoulders. Unbelievably soft, it was usually accompanied, on really bad days, by a glass of strawberry milk and bottomless plates of macaroni and cheese. Strawberry milk in hand, an owl she recognized as her mother's tapped on the glass. She opened the window and sighed, realizing at the thought of her Mum, that she'd utterly forgotten her manners. She found the alumni journal in the pile of things in her chair and scrawled notes to Remus, Tonks, and Hermione.

Ginny claimed her Macaroni and Cheese and settled in with the journal. Not only did it provide a good home for things she didn't want to think of but couldn't seem to keep out of her mind, but there was also harmless conversation happening inside it. Anything resembling normal, thoughtless social interaction was what she needed to keep her mind off of Harry. The journal was perfect. It meant that she didn't have to go outside and risk seeing anyone, and the Mac and Cheese was only a few feet away. After a small nap, a bit of conversation with Seamus and Stephen, two owls to Molly, both of which seemed to be a painful stretch of the imagination but she wasn't ready to talk about anything yet, Ginny stretched and braided her hair. She was thankful that she was communicating with her mother in writing, because she would've never gotten away with the lies in person.

She look around her flat and the mussed journal. Writing in it had helped a bit, but she needed to talk to a real person that didn't cause her any emotional tempests. Pulling on a loosely crocheted hat, she popped a sobering draught into her pocket and walked down Diagon Alley to the Leaky Cauldron. She felt a bit guilty about standing everyone else up, but she figured they didn't miss her.

Stephen still wasn't convinced that it was interesting, but if she said it was, that was good enough. "If you say so. Yeah, I work for the Ministry," he replied, a little sheepish about it all. He certainly wasn't in any sort of high position in the Ministry, nothing to be proud of, so he thought. "Misuse of Muggle Artifacts. I seem to know more than most Ministry members, but no promotion yet."

He smiled, thinking he was talking way too much about himself and he was curious about Luna too. "What about you? I know about the Quibbler, obviously, but what else?"

"I don't know, you tell me." Stephen wasn't sure what he was referring too either, but there had to be more than writing for the Quibbler, just like there had to be more to Stephen's life than the Ministry.. right? Except, there wasn't, unfortunately.

"There's nothing else. I work for my father, write my column, do research for my column, that's it. I don't have friends. I don't have a boyfriend. I take dance lessons." Why did she say that? she didn't tell anyone about that.

He thought her article was nice, very nice. She was blushing. Why was she blushing? Luna Lovegood doesn't care what people think about her or her work. Firewhiskey, it had ot be the firewhiskey...and getting more compliments in one weekend than in her whole life. up, had to be it.

"Thank you, Stephen." She squeezed his arm again and leaned in to plant another kiss on his cheek.

More kisses?! He was convinced he must have done something good to deserve all of it, but what that was, he had no idea. He blushed as well, smiling. It was very strange.

"At least you have free time for dance lessons," Stephen commented, "between all my work at the Ministry, I barely have time to sleep some nights. I don't have a boyfriend either." He paused, and grinned. "Or a girlfriend. The last girl didn't like how I never had any time for her." Among other things, but Luna didn't need to hear.

"Free time? I have no free time. I'm actually here at the reunion working....covering it for the paper. The dance lessons," Why had she told him that? It was just embarrassing, "I have to do those." She didn't explain further, she wasn't even sure she could.

Her brow furrowed as she looked at Stephen, "No boyfriend OR girlfriend? I'm confused." Luna wasn't well versed in the complications of being attracted to both genders.

"Lucky you. I didn't want to go to anything, I didn't want to see anyone again, but I guess I got sucked into it." Stephen arched a brow and tilted his head, not understanding the bit about having to take lessons. He could sense that she didn't want to explain - or at least that she wasn't going to, and didn't press the issue anymore.

He laughed and shook his head, waving a hand. "Nevermind, don't worry about it."

Luna shrugged and dropped the subject of boyfriend/girlfriend indecisiveness. She was still recovering from the firewhiskey and suddenly was very, very hungry.

"I need more cheese." She grabbed a stack of napkins and began folding away, her fingers a bit less nimble than they were before, but she managed. After a few moments she placed a paper cow on the table. She tapped it once with her wand, causing it to become bespeckled with large black spot and issuing a chorus of tiny 'moos' from it's tiny paper mouth.

Stephen watched her intently as she folded up the napkin and made a cow. It was fascinating. "How do you do that?" He leaned over and looked at the cow, closely, before reaching out to pat it on the head.

"Hungry? I'm lucky I had lunch before, otherwise I'd be on the floor."

Luna laughed at his remark, she had been on the floor and not having lunch probably had a lot to do with it. "Yeah, I don't recommend it. The floor is far less comfy than you, Stephen."

With a flick of her wand, the cow stood up on it's back legs, did a bit of a jig and twirled as it transfigured into a plate of cheese and crackers. Luna took a bit of each, making herself a tiny sandwich. "Do what?"

Stephen grinned. "I figured, otherwise you'd probably still be on the floor all cuddled up there instead."

That right there was just a bit of transfiguration, and it was neat as well, the cow turning into cheese and crackers. "Make little animals out of paper," he replied, picking up a napkin and staring at it. "It's beyond me."

Luna chuckled, she had actually learned the skill of paper folding a while ago, back when she was a kid and had been trying to work through her mother's death. Her mother had collected muggle books and Luna had found one on origami. She had spent quite a bit of time studying and practicing, somewhere deep inside hoping it was something her mother did too or had wanted to learn to do. Transfiguring the figures into food was just something Luna had started doing one day when she was feeling a bit peckish.

"Would you believe me if I said some old Japanese wizard taught me?" She winked at him, thinking that was far more interesting than the truth. "I can teach you, if you want."

Stephen shrugged. "Sure, I'd believe that," he replied, "even if it's not true. One never really knows these days."

He looked between the napkin in his hands and Luna, wondering how the hell she'd be able to teach him, but he was willing to give it a shot. "Yeah, but I don't know if you'll have any luck teaching me. You can try, though."

Luna chuckled, "Old Japanese wizard it is then. Trust me, it's more interesting than the truth."

Luna handed Stephen a napkin befor taking one for herself. "We'll start with a crane, it's pretty easy." She made the first fold, showing it to him as she did. "No, like this." she reached over and put her hands over his, folding the napkin the correct way and guiding his hands in the process.

It seemed as though he was clumsy and that his hands were far too big for it. The napkin was just so small, even with Luna helping him. Stephen managed, with help, to actually fold a crane, but he couldn't remember how they did it after.

"I did it! Sort of." He looked down at the crane in his hand, looking it over and wondering how it got from a flat napkin to this. "I don't know if I could do it without you helping me along, though."